New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

A similar situation happened in each of the great alliance's capitals, as they had to pull back their troops to prepare for the Inter-Alliance Military Exercises. The only one unaffected by this was Stellar Woodlands.

Their very limited military machine meant they kept to themselves a lot, aside from the few times Leon took some of them on mercenary jobs over the last ten years.

So, their interactions with most kingdoms were through their limited number of diplomats.

This made for a simple preparation for the exercises, as no one relied on them for defence. Point in case was also that the lands around their kingdom and into the Elven forests were mostly devoid of threat, given how many adventurers stayed in Bastion City.

Khalor had made sure the worse of the breaches was sealed before they even left for the update. This move alone had saved the eastern part of the continent of light thousands of lives.

But the tension was at its highest in centuries, and many kingdoms threatened to go to war with the alliance if they pulled out now. The five original members of the alliance scoffed the threats away.

If any kingdoms threatening them had the power to do anything, they would already be in the alliance.

Of course, the risk of them banding together and striking at one city at a time was very present. But the great alliance was not just a name they gave themselves.

Their combined military machine was enough to raze through the entire continent quickly. Some of these growing medium kingdoms needed a reminder.

So, as a message, four of the five kingdoms sent the divisions that were returning home to these rebellious kingdoms.

A few kingdoms were humbled over the next two days, and the complaints stopped. But the players barely registered these events, as most of the kingdoms affected were too small to be main attraction points to them.

And the players who noticed the events were smart enough not to try anything funny against a division of armed Natives that looked like they could tear them to pieces.

But the day moved forward, life moving on for everyone between the two continents.

It wasn't great for every person, but life was never fair.

And in Bastion city, life was in a particularly special slump that day.

"Seriously, why did the king and queen take an entire section of borderlands for themselves? Aren't they always cooped up in the palace? Why the sudden urge to go hunt?" an Orc Native complained, sitting at a tavern in the outer city.

"What do you mean, dude? They are players like me. They don't just sit there. I heard they cleared out a special dungeon the other day. A unique one, at that. Their power levels can't be compared to you or me. Let them hunt if they want to," a human male said next to him before downing his mug of ale.

The Orc looked at him with a weird side-eye.

"Your whole kind is always so ready to throw yourselves at death. It's impressive there are any of you left… You aren't even that powerful…" he bitched.

The player, who was starting to get heavily intoxicated, took that as a personal offence and spun on his bar stool.

"What d'ya say?! Say that again to my face; you tusked fugly! I'ma show you what players can do!"

The Orc immediately took offence to the racial slur and grabbed the human by the collar.

"I'm going to shut your loud mouth, you fragile hummie!"

Both of them swung their hands back, ready to fight, when one large, scaly, red hand landed on each of their shoulders.

"Pipe down, you bozos! You're ruining everyone's drink with your incessant babbling and bitching. Take it outside if you want to fight!"

The human player immediately shrunk in on himself as he scanned the person and saw the name above their head.

*RedWing*

Guild: Paragon (Lieutenant)

Race: Dragonborn

Level: 52

**

He gulped as he realized the trouble he could be in if he went through with this brawl inside the bar.

"I'm sorry, sir! I think I'd rather go hunt to cool my temper. Yes. A hunt!"

The human player immediately let go of the Orc, knocking away his hands, before bolting out the front door, his face pale.

Pissing off an officer, even just a lieutenant, could land him outside the guild. Getting in had been hard for him; getting kicked out now would waste his efforts.

The Orc stared aggressively at the Dragonborn, looking down at the hand on his shoulder. Already, a low growl was leaving his lips.

But RedWing shoved his face in close to the Orc's face.

"Got something to say, pal? Cuz' I'll gladly take that chump's place and take you outside. I need to stretch my wings, anyway."

His hand started clamping shut, and the Orc felt the power inside the grip. Whomever this was, he was not lacking in physical prowess.

"No, Sir. I'll go back to drinking if you don't mind," the Orc said, trying to turn around.

But the hand on his shoulder clasped him in place.

"Tch. You're no fun," RedWing complained as he let the Orc's shoulder go.

He wouldn't start the fight if the man had no will to fight. But he could have used a little warm-up.

RedWing had just returned from a hunting quest with the adventurer's guild, which also aligned with a guild quest, giving him double rewards, and was only catching a drink and bite before leaving again.

Returning to his table, he sat down with his friends; two familiar faces were in addition to his usual gang.

"If you want to brawl that bad, we can go to the training grounds, you know, tough guy?" Jaxx mocked.

RedWing scoffed, a small gout of fire bursting out of his nose.

"Brawling with you isn't fun. That legacy of yours makes you unkillable. Where's the fun in wailing on a target that doesn't retaliate?" he mocked.

"Hey! It's not like I can do shit other than that! The strength you got from that race change makes you a monster. Plus, when you sense you could lose, you fly up, you cheap ass."

"Alright, settle down, you two," Jeanne said, shaking her head.

The rest of the players at the table giggled and chuckled at the sight of the meatheads taunting each other.

Peaceful Grove placed her hand on the table, making a small rose bloom, which got everyone's attention.

"Alright. Where to next, scaly?"